We’re supposed to call him Soldier F, for legal reasons. His real name is widely known among those familiar with the history of Bloody Sunday, the massacre of 13 unarmed protestors in Derry on January 30, 1972 – 53 years ago this week. Another died shortly after, and in all 27 unarmed civilians were killed or injured by British soldiers that day.
Soldier F’s anonymity is legally protected, at least for now, and in the coming months, he will finally go on trial for the murder of James Wray and William McKinney, two of those shot dead on Bloody Sunday. He is also charged with five attempted murders that day.
For the families of those killed, this has been a long struggle for justice. An official inquiry immediately after the killings in 1972 exonerated the soldiers and was widely condemned as a whitewash. In 2000, after decades of campaigning, a new inquiry finally began, and I reported from the Saville Inquiry at the time for Irish America magazine, interviewing witnesses, families of victims, and those who had survived being shot that day.
Soldier F gave testimony at the Saville Inquiry over two days in October 2003, where he appeared to suffer from a startling level of amnesia about Bloody Sunday, saying he remembered virtually nothing. He admitted to giving contradictory statements about his actions on Bloody Sunday in the following days. By legal agreement, the evidence he gave at the Saville Inquiry can’t be used in this trial.
From the Saville Inquiry transcripts, we know how Soldier F moved along the streets that day, shooting with three other soldiers, known at the inquiry as Soldiers E, G, and H. Although moving as a four, he was mainly in a pair with Soldier G (who is now deceased). Forensic evidence presented at the Inquiry confirmed that Soldier F killed 17-year-old Michael Kelly that that day but that is not one of the killings he is now charged with. So far, neither he nor any other former British soldier has been convicted of any of the killings.
Soldiers F and G were also accused at the Inquiry of the torture of detainees on the night of Bloody Sunday.
The survivors I spoke to recounted how the British Parachute Regiment shot dozens of people without provocation that afternoon.
Joe Friel was 20 when Bloody Sunday happened. He told me how he was with others in a small car park. Soldier F is charged with his attempted murder. Friel recalled the mass panic on the streets when the shooting started. “There was pandemonium, chaos — people running, shouting, you could hear shooting. I tripped and stopped to get my breath. The shooting was getting more intense,” he said.
“You could hear single shots, then a few shots, then a whole spiel of shots. I started to run and a young fella, Gregory Wild, shouted a warning and as I turned round I saw three soldiers coming at me. The lead soldier opened fire from the hip, literally spraying the crowd. One had his gun in the air, and another was lifting his gun to shoot. After that, I heard three or four bangs, and then I felt just a tap, just a warm sensation and a gush of blood coming out my mouth. I was hit in the chest. If I hadn’t turned, I’d have been shot in the back.”
He recalled being taken into custody at a nearby house. ”I was on the floor, and these women appeared and started saying the rosary over me, and I thought, ‘Oh no.’”
Mickey Bradley was also shot that day, in both arms and in the chest, but survived. He died at home in his sleep in 2009. In 2000, he told me he was 22 when he was shot and had been a regular on civil rights marches. He said when the Paratroopers charged up the street at the crowd, he took shelter near the Rossville Flats. “You could hear the shooting, but I thought it was rubber bullets. A lady came past and said, ‘You’d better get up and get out of here because they’re shooting live ammunition. There’s a young man lying dead out here in the car park.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
He said he went to the car park to see for himself. “There was a crowd of about ten standing around Jackie Duddy’s body. Jackie’s older brother Billy was my best mate. When I saw it was young Jackie I was so angry and as I looked across the forecourt I could see the soldiers. I started screaming at them, ‘You bastards, you bastards.’”
He said he was completely unarmed: “Nothing in my hands; no guns, no nail bombs, I just shouted and roared. Next thing I was hit — shot. It didn’t feel like a bullet, more like a punch in the right arm. Within seconds, blood came down the sleeve of my coat. All I could think was, ‘I’m shot, I’m shot.’”
He was also taken into a nearby house and laid down in the hallway – “there were a lot of people around me because people were fleeing for their lives into the house. I lay there for what seemed like ages. I worried that I was going to die and never see my child. I could feel my flesh burning. I’d been shot in the right arm, the left arm, and in the chest. The priest and the first aid man lifted up my jumper, and I saw the young first aid man shake his head slowly to the priest, and I thought, ‘What does he see that I can’t see?’ and they quickly pulled the jumper down.”
Eventually, an ambulance arrived, and a priest, Fr. Tom O’Gara, went out with a white handkerchief. “He was shouting, ‘Hold your fire, hold your fire.’ The bodies of two men were with me in the ambulance.” Bradley said before Bloody Sunday, his job was as a painter and decorator, but bullets hit him in his arm and chest, and afterward, he couldn’t use his right hand properly.
Friel and Bradley both gave evidence at the Saville Inquiry.
After a decade of testimony and deliberation, the Saville Inquiry finally concluded in 2010 that “none of those killed or injured that day bear any responsibility for the shootings; all of them were innocent. It found that none of those shot at was ‘posing a threat of causing death or serious injury,’ none of them was armed with a firearm, and ‘no one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at soldiers on Bloody Sunday.’”
When the Saville Inquiry published its findings, the British Prime Minister was David Cameron, and he announced to the British parliament that “What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong.”
The trial of Solider F is expected to begin in the coming months. ♦
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